Viewing Biblical Hebrew Unicode

A high-quality Hebrew font such as SBL Hebrew (SBL_Hbrw.ttf) or EZRA SIL [External Site] (SILEOT.ttf) should be installed to view Unicode Biblical Hebrew. SBL_Hbrw.ttf can be downloaded below.

Another font which has reasonably complete support for the Unicode range used in the Tanach is the Code 2000 shareware font [External Site]. This font, when used in conjunction with Internet Explorer, gives good results; however this is not the case with some versions of Netscape.

SBL Hebrew works best with Netscape 7.1, Mozilla 1.6, or Mozilla Firefox 0.8. Internet Explorer 6+ can be used if necessary, however.

For any browser running on Microsoft operating systems the quality of the display for either font depends on an elusive "Unicode Script Processor" file, usp10.dll. Obsolete versions of this file render accents on top of each other and produce very ugly text. One version of this file is provided by Microsoft with its systems, however, the file is not updated by "Service Packs" or "Hotfix" updates. With much work, an up-to-date version can be obtained by joining the Microsoft "MSVolt" workgroup. Install the usp10.dll file by placing it in the same directory as your browser's executable file, i.e. firefox.exe, IEXPLORE.EXE, mozilla.exe, or Netscp.exe.

Occasionally, a combination of Unicode characters will not be rendered properly. When this happens, a dotted circle is drawn. This is not necessarily an error in the XML file.

The SBL Hebrew font file may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the following license. Do not install the font unless you are willing to accept the license terms.

The SBL Hebrew font file is copyrighted software (© 2003), the intellectual property of Tiro Typeworks, Vancouver BC, Canada. SBL Hebrew is a trademark of the Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta GA, USA.

Click here to download SBL_Hbrw.ttf 161,880 bytes

This font is compatible with Windows XP and 2000. To install the font, download the font to a location on your hard drive, open the 'Fonts' in the Control Panel, and run 'File | Add Font'.

End User License Agreement (EULA)

1. The digitally encoded machine readable font software for producing the typefaces licensed to you is the property of Tiro Typeworks. It is licensed to you for use under the terms of this end user license agreement. If you have any questions about this license agreement, or have a need to use the font software in a way not covered by this agreement, please write to license@tiro.com.

2. You may use this font software free of charge for all non-commercial purposes. If you wish to obtain a license for commercial use of this font software, please contact the Society of Biblical Literature at sblexec@sbl-site.org, or write to license@tiro.com. Fees for commercial licenses are at the individual discretion of the Society of Biblical Literature and Tiro Typeworks.

3. You may redistribute this font software free of charge as long as the software is unmodified, all copyright and trademark notices are intact, and the font contains or is accompanied by a copy of this license agreement. You may not charge any fee for the distribution of this font software or alter the terms of this license agreement.

4. You may decompile and modify this font software for non-commercial and personal use by you as an individual or internal use within your organisation. Tiro Typeworks maintains copyright to all derivative fonts in any format. You may not delete, edit or add to copyright, trademark or license information in the font. You may not change the embedding bit. You may not redistribute any modified version of the font software, either free of charge or for a fee. Copies of modified fonts should be submitted to Tiro Typeworks (license@tiro.com) and to the Society of Biblical Literature (sblexec@sbl-site.org), along with any relevant documentation. Tiro Typeworks reserves the right to incorporate any such changes into its own fonts.

5. You may embed the font software in non-commercial electronic documents, including but not limited to web pages and e-books. Font embedding must respect the embedding bit in the font, which must not be changed. The embedding bit for this font software is set to 'Editable Embedding', meaning that documents containing this font software may be viewed, printed and edited, but the embedded font may not be installed on the recipient user s system.

6. All other rights are reserved by Tiro Typeworks, except as otherwise designated in contract between Tiro Typeworks and the Society of Biblical Literature.

7. Neither Tiro Typeworks not the Society of Biblical Literature warrant the performance or results you may obtain by using this font software. Excepting any warranty, condition, representation or term that cannot or may not be excluded or limited by law applicable to you in your jurisdiction, Tiro Typeworks and the Society of Biblical Literature make no warranties, conditions, representations, or terms (express or implied whether by statute, common law, custom, usage or otherwise) as to any matter including, without limitation, noninfringement of third party rights, merchantability, integration, satisfactory quality, or fitness for any particular purpose.

8. Neither Tiro Typeworks nor the Society of Biblical Literature accept any liability for injury, death, financial loss or damage to person or property (including computer hardware, software or data) resulting from the use of this font software.

9. The act of installing this font software on any computer system constitutes acceptance of the terms of this license agreement, without exception.